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Tuesday, May 1, 2012
Steampunk Art Journal
Graphic 45's Steampunk Debutante line is right up my alley. I love the Victorian look. I made this album for a friend of mine and I liked how it turned out. I enjoy adding details.
Tuesday, April 24, 2012
Happy Birthday (in 2 colors and black and white)
I got this idea from a challenge at 365 Cards. The challenge was to create a card using two colors and black and white. I fell in love with the chair paper. I got it and the yellow dotted paper from Michael's, it's the Recollection line.
I enjoyed this challenge. Black and white do make most colors just pop, don't they?
To see this challenge and other fun card challenges, go here:
Monday, April 23, 2012
What's your favorite?
A few years ago, I made these LOs of the kid's favorite things. I thought it would be fun for us to look back when they got older to see what they liked with they were younger. I did these in 2007, maybe I should do another set of LOs like this.
Wednesday, April 18, 2012
Happy Birthday Einat!!!
Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to you....Happy Birthday dear Einat....Happy Birthday to you!
Einat is having a birthday and she wants her friends to share a growing experience. So here is mine:
In 1997 I had a horrible year. I found out my dear mother in law had Parkinson's Disease. My husband's Grandmother passed away. One of my friends lost her four year old daughter to cancer. In the spring of that year, my husband left me. I had two small daughters and I tried to cope by making it all "ok". My husband and I would remain friends, we would co parent separately and do whatever we could to make things good for our girls. I went to therapy with him in an attempt to create some kind of new workable relationship with him, because it was very clear he didn't want to be married to me. He had found someone else. About two months into this, I had an accident which totalled my vehicle, and sent my youngest daughter to the ER in a helicopter. I went with her, praying the whole time....and thank God she was OK. In order to go with her I had to sign a waiver for medical treatment for myself, because they wanted to take me to the hospital too. We were all ok. I was afraid to drive after this, but did, because I had to. About three days later a deer jumped out at me. I didn't hit it but it scared me badly. A few days after this, someone else almost hit me AGAIN. I pulled over to the side of the road, shaking, and I put my head on the wheel and said, "God what do you want from me?!?!" I heard an answer in my mind, clear as a bell, that said, "You can't take a step without ME." I had been trying to "manage" everything on my own, things that were completely unmanageable.
At my friend's daughter's funeral, I had gone to a Catholic church, which was, for me, aptly named, "Our Lady of Consolation." The message had touched my heart deeply that day. I had also been going to graduate school at a Catholic institution, Immaculata College. Images of Jesus and Mary surrounded me at school. I also was talking online to some friends who just happened to be, you guessed it, Catholic. Sometimes God nudges us in the right direction. In my case, I feel like he had to nearly hog tie me and drag me kicking and screaming! After he so plainly told me I needed Him, I started going to Mass at OLC. I joined the Church formally about a year later. Another year later I married a good devout Catholic man and we had two more children.
There are still times when I want to manage things by myself. But God is always there, patiently waiting for me to turn to Him, rely on Him, follow Him and rest in Him.
If you would like to share in Einat's birthday celebration, check out her blog here: http://scrapinit.blogspot.com/2012/04/best-birthday-blog-candy.html
Einat is having a birthday and she wants her friends to share a growing experience. So here is mine:
In 1997 I had a horrible year. I found out my dear mother in law had Parkinson's Disease. My husband's Grandmother passed away. One of my friends lost her four year old daughter to cancer. In the spring of that year, my husband left me. I had two small daughters and I tried to cope by making it all "ok". My husband and I would remain friends, we would co parent separately and do whatever we could to make things good for our girls. I went to therapy with him in an attempt to create some kind of new workable relationship with him, because it was very clear he didn't want to be married to me. He had found someone else. About two months into this, I had an accident which totalled my vehicle, and sent my youngest daughter to the ER in a helicopter. I went with her, praying the whole time....and thank God she was OK. In order to go with her I had to sign a waiver for medical treatment for myself, because they wanted to take me to the hospital too. We were all ok. I was afraid to drive after this, but did, because I had to. About three days later a deer jumped out at me. I didn't hit it but it scared me badly. A few days after this, someone else almost hit me AGAIN. I pulled over to the side of the road, shaking, and I put my head on the wheel and said, "God what do you want from me?!?!" I heard an answer in my mind, clear as a bell, that said, "You can't take a step without ME." I had been trying to "manage" everything on my own, things that were completely unmanageable.
At my friend's daughter's funeral, I had gone to a Catholic church, which was, for me, aptly named, "Our Lady of Consolation." The message had touched my heart deeply that day. I had also been going to graduate school at a Catholic institution, Immaculata College. Images of Jesus and Mary surrounded me at school. I also was talking online to some friends who just happened to be, you guessed it, Catholic. Sometimes God nudges us in the right direction. In my case, I feel like he had to nearly hog tie me and drag me kicking and screaming! After he so plainly told me I needed Him, I started going to Mass at OLC. I joined the Church formally about a year later. Another year later I married a good devout Catholic man and we had two more children.
There are still times when I want to manage things by myself. But God is always there, patiently waiting for me to turn to Him, rely on Him, follow Him and rest in Him.
If you would like to share in Einat's birthday celebration, check out her blog here: http://scrapinit.blogspot.com/2012/04/best-birthday-blog-candy.html
Thursday, March 29, 2012
Name Change
I've decided to change name of my blog. I do love the name "Peace, Love, Art" because it fits my ideals...but I wanted something a little more unusual, something more specific. I came up with Square Peg because many times I feel like a square peg in a world of round holes. I feel love for this world, wonder at it's natural beauty and processes. I love people...how different we all can be, how varied and yet, how alike we can be as well. But I sometimes feel like I don't fit in, like I don't belong here. I have deeply held, rather conservative religious beliefs, but politically I'm fairly liberal. I don't usually like trends. Sometimes I look at the way life is here now, what is popular...like tattoos and piercings....focus on dark things in movies and media.... how much people love coffee....and I just feel so disconnected because I don't enjoy those things or even understand some of them. I try not to judge people on outward appearance alone----I'm always interested in what makes people tick, why they behave as they do, what their motivations are. I want to understand, and I believe most everyone is good at heart. So if you are a tattooed, pierced, coffee drinking "True Blood" fan I can still be your friend, even if I would do none of those things myself. But it does make me feel very separate sometimes. I feel puzzled by the violence in our world, the discord, the discontent. My feelings of being on the outside don't make me hate anyone and it is hard for me to understand sometimes why people seem to really react to "difference" and "otherness" with such negativity. I guess feeling like a square peg sometimes makes people feel angry, because instead of examining themselves, it is easier to put down someone else. Everyone loves to find affinity with others, to be in groups of people like themselves. It feels good to be affirmed in your beliefs and preferences.
I am a square peg. I am different. I'm working to feel content with my sense of being odd in some respects, realizing that I may never be totally in alignment, trying to accept others as they are, and to not only be "ok" with them but to be happy with them, at peace. I ask God's help in this. I have come to see being a square in a world dominated by circles is a gift in itself, even though it doesn't always feel comfortable.
I am a square peg. I am different. I'm working to feel content with my sense of being odd in some respects, realizing that I may never be totally in alignment, trying to accept others as they are, and to not only be "ok" with them but to be happy with them, at peace. I ask God's help in this. I have come to see being a square in a world dominated by circles is a gift in itself, even though it doesn't always feel comfortable.
Tuesday, March 27, 2012
Bloom where you are planted----Card
I did this for a challenge at Bo Bunny that required you to feature handmade flowers. I was feeling a little blah and trying to get myself motivated to make something. I found that challenge and kind of dragged myself to my desk. At first I sighed and almost just got up....then I realized I had a big flower already made. After I got that, believe it or not, everything else on this card was just at my fingertips---scraps from other projects! So it came together fast and easy and was very enjoyable to make...and it turned out so shabby chic---a look I really love. So I'm pretty pleased with my scraps card! Stamp is from the Stephanie Bernard "mums2stamp" set.
If you want to participate in this challenge, make some flowers and go here:
Technique Tuesday for Cookin' Up Creations---Saturday Morning Diva
So by now, you are all aquainted with my sweet Papillion friend Chai. Well, up until about two months ago, Chai slept on a (very nice) dog bed in our master bathroom, as she had since she'd been a puppy. She never liked this. She aquiesced, but she would always raise at least a little fuss, whining and scratching the door. When we went up to bed she'd jump on my bed and snuggle in deeply, hoping either that I wouldn't notice she was there or perhaps that the cuteness factor would make me leave her there. Well, I started leaving her there for a while, putting her in her bed after we'd watched some tv. Then one night I fell asleep and she stayed all night inadvertently. Of course, we've never gone back to dog bed, which now sits, unused. She just wants to snuggle! And...she is in no rush to get out of bed when the sun comes up!
I made the background paper for this LO using the "Mums4you" stamp set from Stephanie Bernard, as well as her inks, licorice and guava. I used a "Stamping off" technique, with the pink flowers, because I wanted a lighter pink. Stamping off refers to inking up a stamp, stamping it one time on scratch paper then stamping where you want it. It gives a lighter color. I made the butterflies with my Silhouette and a small butterfly punch, using vellum to make the smaller one and coating both in stickles glitter. The buttons are from Doodlebug designs, and twine is by The Twinery.
I made the background paper for this LO using the "Mums4you" stamp set from Stephanie Bernard, as well as her inks, licorice and guava. I used a "Stamping off" technique, with the pink flowers, because I wanted a lighter pink. Stamping off refers to inking up a stamp, stamping it one time on scratch paper then stamping where you want it. It gives a lighter color. I made the butterflies with my Silhouette and a small butterfly punch, using vellum to make the smaller one and coating both in stickles glitter. The buttons are from Doodlebug designs, and twine is by The Twinery.
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